The end of March will mark 6 months for us in our house! I can’t believe it’s already been that long and yet at the same time we’ve already created so many fun memories, have hosted our fair share of parties, and spent the holidays here with our families making the house truly feel like home. The downstairs is pretty much finished (decor-wise) although one aspect I’ve been taking my time with has been finding the right artwork / hanging photos. I’m torn because one part of me wants to fill the walls immediately but the other part of me reminds myself to take my time and find the artwork and pieces that are meaningful.
Such was the case with my office room. Previously it was a formal living room that we converted into a dual office / second family room. We bumped out the wall attaching this room into the larger, main family room for a more open floor plan. I wanted the vibe of the room to feel equally masculine and inviting for my guy but also a comfortable space that I would be excited to work-in for hours at a time when home. It took me awhile to decide what kind of images would mesh well in this space and so it’s been bare for the past 6 months. It wasn’t until I was unpacking a box I hadn’t yet gone through from our move and found an old fashion week ticket from when I worked at ELLE. It reminds me of such a fun time in my career, and our lives living in New York, and so I decided to have it framed and create a fashion-inspired gallery wall (that wasn’t too girly) to really make the room feel like my workspace and filled with some of my favorite memories.
Soon after finding The Row ticket I discovered Framebridge–an easy way to custom frame your images and momentos. You choose your frame style, upload or send in your images and then they’re mailed back to you shortly after all fancy-like. I pulled together some of my favorite fashion week runway images (from the Libertine finale last fall–which is always one of my most favorite shows as the models are always having the best time!), a photo with one of my NY besties, and also, a handful of Picasso postcards I wanted to frame from my trip to Paris with my family last summer and sent them off to Framebridge. I uploaded the fashion week images and sent off my postcards and ticket to be framed in the frames of my choosing–Mandalay (gold bamboo detailing for an eclectic feel) and Bolton (industrial-inspired to tie in with the room). It was like Christmas getting them back in the mail these past couple of weeks and I’ve been dying to hang them.
This past rainy Sunday my guy and I finally got around to creating the gallery wall and I love the finished outcome which really finishes off the room.
Tip | Cut paper silhouettes the size of your images and tape them to the wall before making any holes to make sure you like the layout. (I also created a template on the computer to see how I liked the various pieces next to each other first).
Then get to barking orders!
So happy with how it turned out and the mixed frames–Mandalay and Bolton.
Thank you to Framebridge for collaborating on this post–and for those interested in framing some pieces, use code: CHEETAH15 for 15% off your first order
Photography | Stephanie Rudy